Another Temptation to Judge Moment! December 4, 2008

I was reading a blog entry over at oftwominds.com, about the auto industry and the adversarial culture we live in. Mr. Smith had a tingly insight regarding the product performance of Ye Aulde Bigge Tha-ree Autoe Maykers that because (the )MAN-agement and You-you-you-yeah-YOUnions operate in the unnecessary sea of good-guy/bad-guy approaches to each other, which just continues unabated because no one thinks to challenge that. People who evolve from MAN-agers to just people with supervisory authority tend to be marginalized in favor of those who find ways to stick it to their subordinates, at least generally that seems to be the case in most sick companies. Because I don’t really have a gauge of how auto management culture operates, I really couldn’t say. Yet when I think of the two sides of the equation where there’s MAN-agement and You-You-You-Yeah-YOUnions, it’s pretty hard to make a choice. I’ve gotten to a point where I see satanizing oneself in relation to an Other really means “Oh, I have work to do on myself, but I’m going to make you wrong instead! So let the fingerpointing commence!”

And lots of time and energy and feelings get to feed Deimos and Phobos and Ares in the process. Hooray for War! Hooray for Our Side, which means hooray for their side too! Hooray for suicide via combat! Screw those who want a real life!

Wusses.

To be clear, this satanic approach to conflict can be quite seductive. I’ve noticed how I can really get involved in it, even through watching a program such as Project Runway if I have a favorite designer. But later, I have an emotional hangover from it. At least I’m noticing that if I fall into this sort of behavior, I will pay for it and that time after becomes shorter and shorter. I’m glad, actually. Of course it makes television watching increasingly uncomfortable, and I’m becoming more and more unsure even of watching films, at least the actioners and the types of films that seek out culprits and the like. I have begun to thoroughly enjoy “messes” like Syriana and Burn After Reading, to pick two off the top of my head. (Funny, they both star George Clooney. Hm.)

And that being said, I did not enjoy Magnolia or Babel. So it’s not universal.

I work at a law firm, and so I get to marinate in satanization. People have, at different jobs I’ve been at, referred to their opposition as “the bad guys.” And if they are another me, then, I’m the bad guys as much as the satan I work with who is pointing their satanizing finger and zapping “teh Other.” (And “teh” is a [sic], btw.)

I should say as I hear the word in italics in the last paragraph, I put the emphasis on the second syllable: suh-TAHN is how I’m pronouncing it, not Say-t’n. Though for the purposes of our vocal language, I would say “say-tuhn-eye-zing” so people would know wtf of which I speak.

A good question just popped into my head though. Might this be a case of telling a fish about water? I wonder how many people would be able to grasp the concept, not because they’re dumb or ign’nt, but because they’ve lived so long steeped in sa-TAN culture, that they wouldn’t have a capacity to understand a language that questioned it. Also, this idea of adversary gives a bit of depth to Jehovahsatan as I have taken to call the entity. And seeing how J-S shares not a little with Melek Taus, who is the union of the Blue God Dian-y-Glas and the Red God Shaitan. (The Godself and the Fetch–does this make M.T. the Talker? Hm…)

The difference between J-S and MT being that MT at least acknowledges that he’s both light and dark, whereas J-S believes the lie that as J, He’s all good, and as S, he’s all evil. And ne’er the twain shall meet, even though J-S is the King of self-inflicted sadomasochism.

Anyway, I will probably have more on this at another time. If I remember. Lots going on.